The shoppers are on your site, they are interested in the
product, but the design of your shopping cart is causing you to
lose many if not most of your customers. Sound familiar? It
should.

Recent research indicates that the average e-commerce site is
losing near 75 percent of its shoppers during shopping cart
phase of a transaction. While that statistic is probably
influenced upward by a few terrible websites, the fact remains
that most sites are losing huge numbers of customers by not
focusing on their shopping cart. Fortunately, by taking a few
relatively minor steps, you can vastly decrease your shopping
cart abandonment rate.

Fewer Steps are Better

This mantra is as old as e-commerce itself. By forcing your
customers to go through multiple pages you will assuredly see
some attrition. You should ask yourself, is all the information
I am collecting absolutely necessary? Is there another
configuration that would reduce the number of steps my customers
will face? Surprisingly, however, this is probably the last step
that you should take. Unless your process is particularly
laborious, empirical studies indicate that this will likely
affect your attrition minimally for the cost and effort
required. So, I am not saying not to reduce your checkout steps,
but only that you should prioritize the other steps above this
one.

Progress Indicators

In both e-commerce and brick and mortars, the single biggest
inhibitor to conversions is uncertainty. This is certainly easy
to imagine when you consider some brick and mortar examples.
BestBuy stores have transitioned to a single line for all of
their cashiers rather than having customers pick a cashier to
line up in front of. Why? The answer is simple, uncertainty
hurts conversion rates. Humans have an instinctual desire to
know what is coming ahead. By including a progress indicator at
each and every step of the checkout process you will see some
remarkable increases in customer retention. Even if you have a
10 step checkout process, letting customers know where they are
along the process will ensure a much greater number of
completions.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Shoppers respond to sensory stimulation. People like to take
things off the shelf and inspect them. Because that option isn't
available for e-commerce sites, you need to compensate for this
deficiency as best as possible. One way to ensure better
conversions is to include pictures not only in the store but
also in the cart. Shoppers, especially those new to e-commerce
want to verify and re-verify that they have made the correct
choice. Many of these customers are lost if you force them to
use their browser's back buttons to do so. By placing a picture
of the item to be purchased within the shopping cart, much of
this need is alleviated, meaning lower abandonment for you.

Provide Total Cost Estimates Early

One of the most overlooked concerns of customers is their
distrust of e-commerce sites when it comes to shipping. Maybe
it's the years of telemarketers selling garbage products for
close to nothing and then making their profit on the shipping.
Whatever the reason, it is important to allay fears of hidden
costs as soon as possible by providing your users with a total
cost estimate earlier rather than later. Is there something to
be said for bringing the customer in with a low-ball lead price?
Yes. But after the leader it is important to let customers know
what they are really paying as early as possible so as to give a
few moments to acclimate to the increase.